Kornheiser on working for Dan Snyder

By
Dan Steinberg

Tony Kornheiser and Daniel Snyder were both panelists at Wednesday night's Shirley Povich Colonnade Reception, put on by the University of Maryland journalism school and the Maryland Colonnade Society. Rick Maese covered the heck out of the event, and has several dispatches at Redskins Insider. He also passed along Kornheiser's response when he was asked whether he thinks cashing checks signed by Snyder inhibits him from criticizing the team.

"I actually don't," Kornheiser replied. "What you should know about this is that he and I -- I've worked there now a little bit over a year. We've never had a single conversation about anything I've said. And I've never felt the slightest bit constrained. I felt much more constrained about other people I've worked for in this room -- [former Post sports editor] George [Solomon] -- than I have by Dan.

I think if you listen to that station, 980, you would see that the level of criticism of the Redskins -- if I owned the team, I'd be angry. No, I don't feel the slightest constrained by that. Honestly. And I worried about that in the beginning."

In other Snyder news, he's landed on the cover of Washington City Paper, as the star of Dave McKenna's Cranky Redskins Fan's Guide to Dan Snyder. It's an encyclopedic takedown of Snyder's decade of Redskins ownership, with just about all the horror stories gathered in one place. I should point out that I'm good friends with McKenna, and that our children watch cartoons together, but I think it's worth a read.

It's already been shown that ESPN (the Disney-owned television network) places more pressure on what Kornheiser says than Snyder seems to. (Re: the whole Hannah Storm incident.) I listen to his ESPN 980 radio show every day, and he can be quite critical of the Redskins and of Snyder, but in ways that are valid, not just mean for mean's sake.

The issue with Snyder owning 980 has never been that he would censor or inhibit criticism of the Redskins. He knows better than that and it's never been a problem (other than when Larry Michael is on the air). The issue is that by owning the top sports talk station in town, he ensures that the Redskins are pretty much always the most talked about team on that station, whether it's November--when they should be--or March--when they shouldn't be. He ensures that every bumper on the station is "The Redskins station, 980," and that they run spots promoting the station over and over on the station that feature such great moments in DC sports as the moment Brian Orakpo was drafted. They get rid of the guy on the station that is most knowledgeable about hockey (Al Koken) and the guy who is most knowledgeable about baseball (Phil Wood). It's not about, and has never been about, controlling the message for Snyder and 980. It's about the Redskins being THE MESSAGE and making sure Washington doesn't forget it.

Some of the things in McKenna's article I knew about but now I know more and am glad not a penny of my money goes in to that little twerps pocket. Hell, he ripped off Bill Gates(among many others) so if you think he isn't ripping all the fans off, you're nuts. It is what he does. Snyder is a tool and everyone knows it but those who spend money on his team. Poor bastiges need to wake up.

The Redskins aren't winning another Super Bowl as long as Snyder owns the team. Book it.

As badly as Art Modell screwed over the people of Cleveland, the fact was that even Modell was a far, far better team owner than Snyder will ever be. Snyder and Jerry Jones are really in a class by themselves. A low class.

I have to agree with the fingerman. I stopped listening a while back. There are more teams and other sports interests besides the Redskins. The Dan has done everything he can to keep his team in the spotlight and his ego afloat.

Sorry Dan, but I stopped reading McKenna's piece when he blasted Snyder for his firings of Norv Turner and Charlie Casserly.

Both dismissals were clearly warranted and long overdue. Turner was 32-47-1 as head coach before Snyder took over and for McKenna to give Charlie Casserly credit for building the 1991 Washington Redskins is a flat out insult to Bobby Beathard and quite frankly makes me think McKenna either has no idea what he is talking about or simply writing yet another hack piece against Snyder.

It is almost bizarre how critical 980 is of the Redskins. Generally I view the 980 personalities as over the top and cranky while the 106.7 guys are more fair and even-handed. In fact, my reading of the Dukes rant is that Chad wanted to go farther than the 980 guys would be willing to.

Interesting that in McKenna's article he mentions Snyder owning Dick Clark Productions. There's a piece in today's Post, at the link below, that talks about Dick Clark Productions being sued by the Golden Globe organization for their scheming to "steal" the rights of the awards show and secretly negotiate a low-ball renewal deal of the telecast with NBC. Same old day I guess. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/18/AR2010111800036.html

Barno1: John Thompson wanted to win and he wanted to win badly so he stuck it to...................... yes that's right now you probably don't know the real story about John Thompson's St.Anthony's H.S. team's and how one famous local h.s. coach and certain other factions kept St.A's out of then prestigous Catholic league which led to Coach Thompson wearing a huge chip on his shoulder which is why he never even attempted to recruit a player from that very famous h.s.team located in Hyattsville,Md. when he became head coach at G'town and to be fair Barno1 it was all well and good for blacks to be denied the right to play for major white universities for decades, to be truthfull i wish Thompson would have gone to Howard to coach but Howard was to stuck up and cheap to hire Thompson.

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